rodrigochaz

 

This is really amazing and should be quoted for being an amazing post.

 

 

I also wanted to elaborate a little on how much Chester meant to me. My parents got divorced when I was 11, and that was weird for me. My family life was kind of chaotic because of it, always going back and forth between my Mom and Dad's, then seeing both side of Grandparents, etc. I didn't really have any friends when I was a kid except for maybe 1 or 2 other kids, and I wasn't really that close with them. I began to listen to music as a form of identity and healing. I found Linkin Park one day in 2003 when I heard ''Somewhere I Belong'' and I remember falling in love with that song. It's funny because I've always been unsure about how exactly I first heard Linkin Park in the past, but when Chester died, it all came back to be full force. I then went and bought Meteora at a F.Y.E. in a local mall (that is no longer there) sometime around the time it was released and I thought it was the greatest music I had ever heard. I didn't even know about Hybrid Theory (strangely), but I played the shit out of that Meteora CD, multiple times a day, everyday. I was pretty angry as a teen (just look at some of my old LPA posts from like 2005 and prior) and I resonated a lot with the anger and emotion of Meteora. I went through a lot of ''mind games' and different psychological abuse but I won't elaborate much on that here. 'I then started checking out other stuff from the band and discovered Hybrid Theory, Reanimation, etc. My Family also owned a Pizza Restaurant while I was growing up and one of the guy's that worked there was really into music, and he ended up burning me a CD called ''Under Attack'', which was a fake compilation album of Linkin Park back in the day. It had a lot of Grey Daze songs, as well as rare songs like Carousel, And One, etc. I remember then searching for the origin of those songs and discovered Hybrid Theory EP, Xero, etc. I remember I asked him to then burn me some more stuff and he burned me Hybrid Theory EP and LPU 2. I then joined LPU 3 late in 2003 or early 2004 and I got my LPU 3 package in the mail, which I still have the items from to this day. I then started going on LP message boards and stuff at some point in 2004 and became really obsessed with the band. I never was interested in going to concerts when I was younger for some reason, although I'm sure I could have if I had wanted to, but I do remember asking my Dad or my Mom or something to bring me to Live 8, but I remember we couldn't go last minute. It would have been about a 6 hour drive for us.

 

After that, I got more into the band as time went on, and I eventually saw the band live for the first time at Bamboozle in 2007. I then went to Projekt Revolution 2007 three times and tons of shows in the years after that. My strongest memories of my teenage years are linked to Linkin Park and Chester. I ended up meeting my best friend in High School who also loved Linkin Park and had been a fan even longer than me, with Hybrid Theory, and we went to tons of shows together and stuff. They really shaped who I was as a person, and my identity, something I'll be forever grateful for. I'm pretty much known as that Linkin Park guy around my town because it's not a big town and there really aren't any hardcore fans here except for me. I also possibly met my first girlfriend and girlfriends after because of the band, something I'll also be eternally grateful for. Minutes To Midnight also became my favorite album of all time and I ended up being able to go to LA and to see the Houdini House in 2007, etc. I'll never forget the years 2007, 2008 because of Linkin Park.

 

Chester in particular, I looked up to him a lot. I knew he had issues growing up, and while I didn't have the same ones as him, I still felt like he was someone I could look up to and connect with. Chester pulled me out of the darkest period of my life, when I was about 19 to 23 or so, I was hanging out with the worst kinds of people and got into drugs and alcohol and just a lot of bad things, and Chester really inspired me to pull through and come out of it. I used to look up to him so much, i wanted to be just like him, I'd try and dress like him, get tattoos like him, etc. It's quite funny when I look back at it now, but that's how much he meant to me. Of course, I love the rest of the band too, but Chester I loved the most. I remember meeting him for the first time and saying ''sorry, I'm kind of freaked out to be honest'' and he was like ''it's ok man, and he put his arm around me, etc.''. That's my best memory of Chester. I feel fortunate to have met him and tell him how much his music meant to me, etc. I even gave him a folded up letter at the Camden 2012 Summit, not sure if he truly read it or not, but I said ''will you please read this'' and he said ''I absolutely will''.

 

I don't know, it just doesn't seem real that he's gone. It's cut me up deep and I'm probably never going to be able to truly move on. RIP Chester.

Geki, just like you and me, I'm sure Chester has inspired thousands of people all over the world to be better people. On July 19th was my birthday, a bad date now to remember. Many people do not understand our mourning in this case, but my dear believe you are not alone. I still get very excited about this subject and I know it will take time to recover, but only time can help us. Particularly looking to walk away from Linkin Park, this is my way to deal better with this situation because my heart is still hurt.

My name is Rodrigo and I live in Brazil, I met Linkin Park 13 years ago, when I met Linkin Park I was going through a difficult phase in my life, I did not have my father around he was a very distant person. I had a brother who was a drug addict and another brother who was addicted to alcohol. My mother and I worked hard to keep the house, I have a younger sister as well who always helped to take care of her.

In this very difficult phase in my life Linkin Park was essential to support these problems. So I started to live Linkin Park, they were my biggest influence and it sure kept me on the floor. Chester has always been my greatest idol as he is to many, get to see 4 shows of Linkin Park, I participated in 1 meet. I can only say that I love Linkin Park, I'm married today, I have a great wife and we have a 5-month-old baby. I was on vacation in a very quiet inland city, where I lived most of my past when my wife told me that she saw on the tv about Chester. In the first 2 days I did not want to talk about it, I was running away from the subject, until then at one point my wife hugged me, so I cried like a child, my heart was broken, I could not understand what had happened, Suffer it.

Until this moment I do not understand and I would very much like Chester to have between us. I could realize that even Chester did not know my story, as well as many stories from other fans around the world, he is part of our story. Linkin Park and especially Chester inspired me, helped me through so many difficulties and getting to where I am today. And it hurts me so inconsolably to see it end this way. I still do not know what the reason he did it, I just know that for me to understand, accept, and go through this phase, it will be a bit difficult and time consuming. My wife helps me a lot and understands me, she helps me a lot this time. I thank God for her, for my daughter and all my family, but I suffer from it.

I understand that I do not know what he was up against, what he was thinking, and how heavy it was for him, but when I had nothing, I had only problems, Linkin Park was the only thing I had. I'm sorry for Chester, but he had a family, which at this point must suffer a lot more than I did, he had friends, he had Linkin Park, I did not know people and I do not know much about his personal life, Fans of the Whole World, Linkin Park, and His Family would help him with all the Love of our hearts. At this moment that I write these my feelings I can no longer hold the tears in my eyes, but that is what I feel and I would like to share.

RIP Chester